Fire

On the job in Los Alamos is LAFD Firefighter Mike McElyea training the Los Alamos County Chaplain Corps and the LANL Behavior Health Response Team on the national program, Stop the Bleed, March 12 at Los Alamos County Fire Administration. McElyea explains it is the same as putting your oxygen mask on first before assisting others and trained how to self administer a tourniquet. Photo by Jenn Bartram/ladailypost.com

SANTA FE ―Glorieta Camps, The Nature Conservancy’s Rio Grande Water Fund and the Forest Stewards Guild plan to take advantage of favorable conditions, including moisture levels, air quality, wind direction, and weather forecasts to initiate a prescribed burn Friday, March 15 at Glorieta Camps, west of Pecos.

This burn will be implemented by the All Hands All Lands Burn Team (Burn Team), which is a fully qualified team designed to lead or support prescribed burns across a variety of land jurisdictions in the Water Fund landscapes of Northern New Mexico and

SANTA FE ―Glorieta Camps, The Nature Conservancy’s Rio Grande Water Fund and the Forest Stewards Guild plan to take advantage of favorable conditions, including moisture levels, air quality, wind direction, and weather forecasts, and initiate a prescribed burn at Glorieta Camps, west of Pecos, as early as Monday March 11.

SANTA FE ― Fire managers on the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) plan to take advantage of favorable conditions, including fuel moisture levels, air quality, wind direction and weather forecasts, to initiate a prescribed burn in the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed on the Española Ranger District as early as Monday, March 18.

Exact dates will be dependent on fuel conditions on site.

Up to 500 acres near Nichols Reservoir in the lower Watershed, including 50 acres of piles, will be treated with hand and aerial ignitions.

SANTA FE ― Fire managers on the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest are working with communities to reduce the risk of wildfire by conducting a prescribed burn at the Thompson Ridge slash pit this spring.

The half-acre slash pit, located at the end of Forest Road 106 just north of the community of Thompson Ridge and ten miles north of Jemez Springs, is a collaborative effort between the Jemez Ranger District and the surrounding area to promote fire-adapted communities in the wildland-urban interface (WUI).

SANTA FE – Two bills to provide support for New Mexico’s firefighters have passed the House Labor, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee.

House Bill 324, sponsored by Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Albuquerque) and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-Albuquerque), would amend the Occupational Disease and Disablement Law to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of conditions that are presumed to be caused by a firefighter’s employment.

SANTA FE ― Fire managers on the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) plan to take advantage of favorable conditions, including fuel moisture levels, air quality, wind direction and weather forecasts, to initiate a prescribed burn in Pacheco Canyon on the Española Ranger District as early as Monday, March 18.

Exact dates will be dependent on fuel conditions on site.

The 500-acre unit is adjacent to Forest Road (FR) 102, approximately six miles east of Tesuque Pueblo and three miles west of Ski Santa Fe.

House Bill 439 would establish an Enhanced 911 Advisory Board to work with the Department of Finance Administration and the Department of Information Technology, among other partners, to guide the enhanced 911 fund in improving its efficiency and transition to Next Generation technology.

According to a March 2018 Legislative Finance Report, “upgrading 911 systems to Next

Sen. Mimi Stewart’s bill to improve fire safety in schools, hospitals and other public buildings by requiring the Public Regulation Commission to update inspection guidelines for smoke and fire dampers passed the Senate on Tuesday.

Specifically, SB 143 directs the PRC to establish rules that would allow certified technicians who install smoke and fire dampers to also inspect dampers and report damage or needed repairs.

“Smoke and fire dampers are in almost every school, every hospital and

HB 324, Rep. Debbie Armstrong’s legislation to establish Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a disease that—when diagnosed in a firefighter without previous health issues—can be presumed to have been caused by the firefighter’s service, Wednesday unanimously passed the House Health and Human Services Committee.

“Yes, our firefighters are heroes, but they are also human,” Armstrong said.

SANTA FE ― Fire managers on the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) plan to conduct a prescribed burn in the La Cueva area 7 miles northwest of the village of Pecos if conditions, including fuel moisture levels, air quality and weather remain favorable.

Ignitions on the 372-acre La Cueva unit will treat up to 240 acres per day, and conclude by Feb. 28. Firefighters will use hand ignitions on piles of slash to reduce the risk of wildfire, provide community protection and improve forest health.

Each year more than a 790,000 Americans have a heart attack, of these nearly 15% will die as a result.

A heart attack is known clinically as a myocardial infarction (MI) and is the permanent damage to heart muscle. The prefix “my” means muscle, “cardial” refers to the heart and “infarction” is the death of tissue due to a lack of blood supply.

A heart attack happens when the blood supply to the heart is reduced or cut off. Cells within the heart will become starved of oxygen and begin to die.

A partial facility renovation project at Fire Station 3, located in White Rock, is nearly finished.

The project, which began in October, included several improvements, County Engineer Eric Martinez said. The roof was replaced over the station’s living areas, modifications to the station’s HVAC system were made, and an exterior wall and windows were added to the sleeping areas.

SANTA FE –Fire managers on the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) plan to take advantage of favorable conditions, including fuel moisture levels, air quality, and winds and weather forecasts to initiate a prescribed burn in the La Jara vicinity on the Cuba Ranger District today through March 15 as conditions allow.

A total of 79 acres may be treated in the area just east of the community of La Jara.

Prescribed fires are one of the most effective tools available to resource managers for restoring fire dependent ecosystems.

SANTA FE – To take advantage of favorable conditions, to include fuel moisture levels, air quality and weather forecasts, fire managers on the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) expect to begin ignitions on piles between Feb. 4 and Feb. 14 to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire.

Weather permitting, crews plan to treat up to 475 acres of piles three to eight miles northeast of Jemez Springs.

The piles will be burned as three different operations:

The Pino West piles are approximately five miles northeast of Jemez Springs along the north end of

Fires of any severity can be destructive and devastating. Within seconds, all possessions could be damaged or destroyed – but in an apartment fire, the effects can go beyond a single family. Apartment complexes house many families, provide income for the landlord, and have a widespread effect if the fire is not controlled quickly.

If you have ever lived in an apartment, you may have noticed that almost all apartments’ stoves come equipped with a stove top fire extinguisher.

Superbowl Sunday is the United States’ second biggest day for food consumption. That means a lot of time is spent planning and preparing game day snacks. Before you kick off your menu, look at these tips for safer cooking from the Los Alamos Fire Department.

“Cooking is the biggest cause of home fire and fire injuries,” Safety Division Chief Joseph Baca said. “Always make safety a priority in the kitchen.”

KITCHEN HUDDLE

Prepare your cooking area. Use back burners or turn pot handles toward the back of the stove. Move things that can burn away from the stove.

The rate at which Americans are dying from overdoses involving opioids is staggering. The U.S. Center for Disease Control has deemed the opioid crisis as a national epidemic.

Decades of over-prescription, along with wide-spread misconceptions about drug addiction, have led to an astounding rise in overdose deaths. The devastation is pervasive, leaving families of every type and communities of every size grieving and searching for answers in the wake.

From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose.

Senior Fire & Life Safety Coordinator Stephen Rinaldi was honored recently with an appointment to serve on a Technical Committee tasked with the revision of the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) 921 Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations.

The process to serve on one of the NFPA’s committees is a competitive selection process, with dozens of applications submitted each year by fire investigators and subject matter experts internationally.

A Los Alamos 911 operator took a desperate call Friday from the area near Aspen School. According to Los Alamos Police Cmdr. Preston Ballew, a man accidently shot himself while examining his gun, which he thought was not loaded. With a bullet in his arm, he managed to call 911.

LAPD Sergeants Chris Ross and James Keane were nearby and rushed to the scene, where they were joined

Los Alamos police and firefighters on the scene this afternoon of a couple of vehicles trapped under the roof that collapsed from the weight of heavy snow at Sonic on Trinity Drive. First responders told the Los Alamos Daily Post that no injuries have been reported. Sonic is closed until further notice. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com

First responders jack up the collapsed roof at Sonic to open the doors of the vehicles pinned beneath and extract the occupants safely. Photo by Leland Lehman/ladailypost.com

Winter storms can cause a community to see an increase in car accidents, falls, hypothermia, frostbite, carbon monoxide poisoning and heart attacks from overexertion. Storms bring extreme cold, freezing rain, snow, ice, and high winds. As we recently experienced, winter storms can last for several days, cause havoc on heat, power and communication services, but they also place our community members at higher risk.

Students and staff were evacuated, and Los Alamos Firefighters responded to an alarm triggered late this morning at Los Alamos High School at 1300 Diamond Dr. It turned out to be a false alarm and students and staff returned to class without incident. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com

Los Alamos County Fire Department was most impacted in 2018 by the unplanned retirement of three of its chiefs. Division Chief Paul Grano, Battalion Chief Joseph Candelaria and Training Division Chief Mike Gill each retired.

“They moved up their retirement after the County wasn't able to fund raises for non-union and management positions due to uncertain revenues from GRT but did fund raises for union members due to existing labor agreements,” Fire Chief Troy Hughes said.